Pepys Estate Fights Back

We told you about BBC show 'The Tower' earlier this week. It's all about The Pepys Estate in Deptford. Well, it seems there's been a little bit of a backlash from the residents. They're not happy. Apparently one of the residents (a retired gangster) says the show holds them in a dim light.

Apparently the show has been filming people putting needles in their arms and getting drunk. And the residents don't like it. But this, to be fair, must have been filmed somewhere on the estate in the last year of filming. But we imagine if it had been filmed for this long and there's only eight episodes, then it's possible there has been an awful lot of creative editing going on. If not, just picking and choosing the worst bits is enough to make this estate see red.

As Harry Hayward says "We're not the best in the world around here but we're not as bad as all that." This coming from a retired gangster.

But Londonist doesn't want to be unfair. Mr Hayward is a trustee of the elderly residents group and he says they're too scared to go outside. Which is understandable if there's allegedly drug addicts on every corner. Even if this is the case, everyone has the right to live in their home without feeling like victims and made to feel scared.

It seems that while the estate may well have it's problems, but some of the residents are probably hoping that the BBC stick to filming Eastenders next time.

If it wasn't edited to string the more exciting stuff together, nobody would watch it.So if you're looking for someone to blame ... turn towards the mirror. You also have to ask why the residents believe what they see on television more than what they see on their own doorsteps. Also to pick nits you say 'backlash from the residents' but you only quote one - so are there more out there who don't like it? And are there any that do?

siany

I've added a link to the original article - not sure why the link wasn't working before but it should be fine now if you want to take a look at that. Some people think the documentary was fine and accurate, other people don't.

I agree that people wouldn't watch shows unless there most interesting parts of footage are chosen. But it's interesting to see how much things can change in front of the camera - you never see what happens five seconds later and a lot of the time you don't see things in context.